


Weight of the World

by starkravingmad (ohmyheichou)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Original Character(s), Original Mythology, References to Norse Religion & Lore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2019-11-28 00:37:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18201122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmyheichou/pseuds/starkravingmad
Summary: Thor and Loki are of the Norse pantheon, but they are not the only gods who have walked the earth.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> basically I was inspired by all the fics where tony is a god  
> but the mythology is mine pretty much  
> or it will be, once we get to the parts with mythology

_In the beginning, there was the great void. And above, a mist. Cold and dark._

 

 **Α** **Ω** **Α** **Ω** **Α Ω **Α** Ω **Α** Ω **Α** Ω **Α****   **** ** _  
_ **

 

He is cold, so cold.

His breath hits the air in puffs of white, and his fingers and toes are going numb.

That's fine, though.

He prefers numbness to the pain in his chest - broken ribs and a broken heart, both from the same betrayal. 

Anger and grief and despair all clash within him, and he doesn't know what he should feel. He doesn't _want_ to feel. It just hurts.

He is so cold. He just wants to close his eyes and...

_"Sleep."_

What? He's supposed to be alone. He's always been alone.

_"Go to sleep, Tony."_

Above him, there is a woman. He sees black hair and green eyes.

_"Sleep."_

Then there is nothing.

 

 **Α** **Ω** **Α** **Ω** **Α Ω **Α** Ω **Α** Ω **Α** Ω **Α****

 

_And below, a land of fire. From this comes the end._

**Α** **Ω Α** **Ω** **Α**

******Α **Ω** **Α** **Ω** **Α Ω **Α** Ω **Α**********

**********Α **Ω** **Α** **Ω** **Α Ω **Α** Ω **Α** Ω **Α** Ω **Α**************

****************Α **Ω** **Α** **Ω** **Α Ω **Α** Ω **Α********************

************************Α **Ω** **Α** **Ω** **Α**************************

 

Long after they left the bunker behind, Steve's heart was still racing. He clutched the steering wheel desperately, and tried to calm himself down. They were on a course to Wakanda, as T'Challa had offered them sanctuary. It was only right. After all, Bucky was innocent. There was no need for as much drama as there had been, but he supposed that Howard had been just the same - it was all about him. It was so stupid. Tony hadn't even _liked_ Howard; that wasn't exactly a secret. Why did he even care if HYDRA had murdered him? And it had been HYDRA, not Bucky. That was another thing that Tony didn't understand. 

But none of that mattered now. Steve looked affectionately at Bucky, who still looked rather shell-shocked. But then he'd just come under a vicious assault from Tony, right after the man claimed to want to help them. Of course he'd be upset. Steve put the quinjet on autopilot (at least Stark was good for something) and got up to go talk to his best friend.

The quinjet shook ominously, and Steve scowled. He had spoken too soon. Of course Tony couldn't be trusted to do anything right. 

 

 **Α** **Ω** **Α** **Ω** **Α Ω **Α** Ω **Α** Ω **Α** Ω **Α****

 

Pepper came home and relaxed into her favorite armchair. She glanced ever so slightly to her left, and that's when she saw it - a cream envelope with _For Virginia_ written on it in an elegant hand. That was alarming for a number of reasons, first and foremost being that most everyone referred to her as Pepper now, courtesy of Tony. She reached out and took the envelope. It was sealed with golden wax, the emblem an apple. It wasn't anything that Pepper recognized. 

_Dearest Virginia,_

_If you are indeed a true friend of Anthony's, then I bid you come meet me. There are things you must know. In two days' time, at six in the evening, you will be shown the way._

_Do not tell anyone what you are doing, or you will not be able to find me._

Inside was a necklace. The charm was a hammer. 

Thor was the only person Pepper could think of that would fit the situation, but at the same time, it didn't seem like his style at all. 

 

 **Α** **Ω** **Α** **Ω** **Α Ω **Α** Ω **Α** Ω **Α** Ω **Α****

 

Scott wondered if maybe he'd been dropped on his head a lot as a baby. It would certainly explain how he always found himself in these ridiculous situations, only bothering to feel regret or fear after the fact, when it did him no good.

Captain America, right? He was a good guy. A great guy, even. Everyone knew that. Even Hank acknowledged that the one good thing Howard Stark had done was work on the project that gave Captain America his powers. Hank! Saying something positive about Howard Stark! That had to mean something, right?

Only, now he was stuck in some super secret high security prison, and no one had come to rescue them. Everyone else seemed really confident that they would be rescued eventually, but Scott wasn't so sure. How would Steve even find them? Even if he did, would he recognize Scott? Stark sure hadn't.

To make things worse, the prison had just gotten...weird...a couple hours after Stark had come and gone. The lights kept flickering oddly, sometimes cutting off for long stretches at a time. No guards came, no matter how much they yelled that the lights weren't working. Scott wasn't sure about everyone else, but his toilet only flushed about half of the time, and the same went for his sink. 

His life sucked.

 

 **Α** **Ω** **Α** **Ω** **Α Ω **Α** Ω **Α** Ω **Α** Ω **Α****

 

Rhodey marched steadily closer to the glowing dot on his HUD. He was sure it was a trap, but if whoever had Tony thought that Rhodey, his best and oldest friend, was going to throw him to the wolves, then they were gravely mistaken. They were also mistaken if they thought that Rhodey was going to come unarmed. Maybe it was implied that he come unarmed, but they hadn't explicitly said it, and that was the kind of loophole Rhodey couldn't overlook. Especially not when Tony would have been all over it.

Rhodey had come in the War Machine suit, with a line to Jarvis in case things went south. He was prepared. 

The warehouse doors slid open much more smoothly than he would have expected, and he took one clanking step forward.

There was a woman in the middle of the open room. She turned when she heard him, and - 

"Pepper?!"

"Rhodey?!"

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've been dying tbh so yeah  
> hope you like

 Waking up was painless.

He floated his way back to consciousness in that languid, easy way that spoke of lazy Saturday mornings. He was comfortable, relaxed. The sun was warm against his face and the bed beneath him was soft and comfortable.

Tony rolled over and squinted at the window. He could vaguely make out the ocean. God, he loved Malibu.

Wait, what?

Tony jerked back up and stared at the view. It was a nice view, but it was not a Malibu view. If he had to guess, he would say Greece. 

"What the fuck?" he whispered.

Then he looked down. His chest didn't have the telltale glow of the arc reactor. Which, okay. He'd gotten it removed. He remembered that, at least. But it didn't hurt - at all. In fact, his chest didn't just _not hurt_  - his entire body felt better than he had in years. 

"You're awake."

Tony looked up and saw a woman, holding a tray of food. Eggs, bacon, toast, a glass of orange juice. The woman was dressed in a bizarre - flattering, but bizarre - outfit that suspiciously resembled a toga. If he didn't know better, he might have assumed he was staying at some kind of strange resort. But the woman looked like an actress or model; she had that kind of glow that could only come from expensive products and an excess of TLC. She didn't look like a housekeeper or a maid or anything like that...not even an "escort." Besides, Tony had left that sort of thing behind.

The woman set the tray down on a nightstand he hadn't noticed, then sat down in an armchair next to the window. "Are you hungry?"

"What the fu-uck?" Embarrassingly, his voice cracked like it hadn't since his long-forgotten teenage years.

The woman didn't seem to notice. She just leaned back in her chair with a sheepish smile. "Right. I'm sure you have questions. Bear with me - what's the last thing you remember?"

God, what _was_  the last thing he remembered? He felt good, like, in his twenties but without the hardcore drugs and partying good. He hadn't fucked around with Extremis, had he? That would be awful; he really didn't need Steve to get on him about - 

Steve.

Something about Steve.

He'd fought with Steve. Steve had...he had lied. 

And…

Stiffly, Tony told the woman, "Last I remember, I was in Siberia. And now we're in..."

"Greece."

"Greece," he repeated. He had been right. That didn't make him feel any better. "So how did I get here?"

"I brought you here, of course."

Well, if that's not maddeningly unhelpful...though he does remember her. The woman with black hair and unsettlingly green eyes...

"Okay, fine. A better question for you: what the hell were you doing in Siberia? Don't tell me you're HYDRA."

The woman's exaggerated reaction rather killed that notion. No one could react so authentically outrageously. "Ugh, really? Nazis? Or Communists? Whatever the fuck they are? People who don't even know what a hydra is? They have an octopus for their symbol? Please, don't insult me." She gave one final shudder, eyes closed and nose scrunched up in a way that made her look very young. "No, I came to Siberia for the express purpose of retrieving you."

Tony just stared at her. Genius mind or not, he was too confused to contribute much.

She opened her eyes again and smiled at him. "I suppose there isn't an easy way of saying this, but I am Eris, the Greek goddess of chaos, and you are Hephaestus."

What.

 

  **Α Ω Α**

 

"Eris" left him alone in short order, gesturing to the tray in an invitation to eat, but otherwise with no other instructions or restrictions. 

The only explanation Tony could come up with was that she was obviously insane.

Loki and Thor were real, sure, but they obviously weren't what the myths made them out to be. Long-lived aliens were still explainable by science. They weren't necessarily the same people as the "gods" of Norse mythology. More importantly, Tony felt like he would fucking know if he were some kind of Greek god. He didn't have any such knowledge, so he was going to go ahead and say that the woman was crazy. 

Not that it mattered. What really mattered was escaping. 

Tony was mildly (scratch that,  _very_ ) suspicious of how great he felt, given that his last clear memories involved Steve putting his vibranium shield in his chest and subsequently coughing up blood while slowly freezing to death. Fun times. But it was convenient. Increased mobility helped him inspect the room. It was just a really nice room. Obviously quality furnishings, with no hidden cameras that Tony could detect - though of course the really advanced ones would be hard to detect without some kind of tech.

He eyed the food distrustfully, but gave in to his hunger pretty quickly. If she had wanted to drug him, she had had plenty of time to do so while he was unconscious.

And  _mmm_ , he didn'thave any regrets about that choice. The bacon was heavenly. Everything was heavenly. If he overlooked the fact that he had been kidnapped, anyway, and it was surprisingly easy to overlook that particular fact. 

 Breakfast done and stomach full, Tony decided it was a good time for him to escape. There was literally nothing useful in the room, besides the knife and fork that had been supplied with his breakfast. The utensils were surprisingly sharp, and he carefully wrapped them with some napkins before pocketing them. 

Tony cautiously pressed the side of his head against the door. There was no sound beyond it, which suggested either that there were soundproofing  measures in place or that there was no one in the vicinity. He gave the door a cautious knock. Huh. Or maybe the door really was solid. 

Well, there was really one thing to do. He slowly pushed the door open. 


	3. Chapter 3

Rhodey found himself utterly bewildered.

"Pepper?" he said again. "What are you doing here?"

"I got this," she said, extending her hand to show him a rather familiar cream envelope. It had the same gold wax seal in the form of an apple. 

"So we're both here. Now what?"

"Now," cut in an unfamiliar voice, causing both Rhodey and Pepper to turn towards the unknown speaker, "I tell you why you're here."

It was a woman Rhodey had never seen before. Her features were vaguely East Asian, with the exception of her startlingly green eyes. Probably mixed, then. She looked rather innocent, actually, standing there in a loose sundress with an open expression on her youthful face, no weapons to be seen. If those eyes had been brown, instead of the not quite natural green that they were, Rhodey might even have called them doe eyes. He knew better than to think that that supposed innocence meant anything, though. If she was anything like Black Widow, that was part of the trap. 

A glance at Pepper told him that she didn't know who the woman was either.

The woman sat down, and a velvet armchair materialized around her in the previously empty warehouse. "Please, sit," she said with a smile and a wave of her hand.

Rhodey looked behind him and found a sturdy looking wooden chair, which he gingerly sat down in. Surprisingly - or maybe not so surprising, given that it was magic - the chair held under the weight of his suit. Likewise, Pepper was taking her seat in a comfortable leather number that somehow matched her outfit. She didn't look at all bothered by the freaky woman and her casual use of magic. Pepper had always had an excellent poker face. Rhodey, on the other hand, was rather grateful for his suit's faceplate. He knew he looked intimidating with it on; without it, he no doubt looked super freaked out.

"First thing's first: Tony's safe."

The familiar use of Tony's name rubbed Rhodey the wrong way. Then again, everyone called him Tony. Tony Fucking Stark. 

"He was murdered by Steve Rogers, that clown who calls himself Captain America." The still unnamed woman looked almost hilariously disgusted as she said this, but Rhodey was a _little_ more concerned by the first part of that sentence.

" _Excuse me?"_ Evidently, Pepper agreed with him.

No name lady tilted her head curiously. "Oh! Right. Just keep listening, please; it's going to sound crazy."

Right. Why did this always happen to him?

 

**Α Ω Α**

 

Back in the Raft, Scott laid back on his bed and stared at the ceiling mournfully. The lights had gone off. Again.  


**Α Ω Α**

 

Pepper was about two seconds away from having a breakdown. 

Ever since the words "he was murdered" came out of the strange woman's mouth, Pepper had kept herself upright only through force of will and years of practice hiding her true feelings. She couldn't hide the shaking in her hands, so she folded them demurely in her lap, adding to the illusion that she was composed. She kept her eyes on the woman, because if she looked over at Rhodey, she was sure to lose it. 

So she stared straight ahead, her legs locked, her hands white from how hard she was clenching them, and did her best to listen to the crazy woman's ramblings. 

_"You may call me Eris..."_

_"They fought, over something that is not my story to share."_

_"He died. The force of the blow shattered his already compromised sternum and rib cage. His lungs collapsed."_

Pepper cycled through rage and fear and grief and back again. Her hands hurt from how hard she's clenching them, but she couldn't bring herself to unfold them. 

 _"I suppose I didn't have to bring you both here like this, but sometimes I just_ like being dramatic..."

Something snapped within Pepper. She blinked, rapidly, as she tried to process that last, absolutely lunatic statement. "I don't understand," she said, voice much calmer than she felt. "So there was no point to this? You're not going to demand a ransom, or threaten us, or - or -  "

"Eris" looked at her. "I did exactly what I said I would. There were things you needed to know, and you have been told." She crossed her legs, clasped her knees, and bent forward, as though imparting a secret. "A favor, for Tony's two true friends."

Somehow, Pepper found it within herself to croak, "Happy would be offended."

Eris laughed. "Too true, Ms. Potts. Too true. But he's busy looking after our friendly neighborhood Spiderling, so I chose not to distract him." 

Pepper smiled weakly. 

 

**Α Ω Α**

Meanwhile, Peter Parker was freaking out. Not because of the whole I've-been-hero-worshipping-Tony-Stark-my-entire-life-and-then-I-met-him-and-he-took-me-to-Germany thing. Though that had also prompted a fair bit of freaking out. No, the current freak out was because Tony Stark was missing - so declared all the news - and Happy (who didn't ever look happy and was probably looking _very_ unhappy these days) wasn't answering any of Peter's numerous and increasingly panicked phone calls.

Listen, Peter wasn't exactly Avenger material; he knew that. But still! Iron Man himself had recruited him for a mission, so he thought he deserved a little something. Just a short text, even, like "He's fine." with the ominous capitalization and harsh punctuation. But no such luck - Happy remained incommunicado.

Peter was so stressed out Aunt May was starting to notice. And that wasn't good, because as he had told Mr. Stark, when May freaked out, Peter freaked out.

Of course, then he got home to find a mysterious box on his bed. Who else could it be from but Mr. Stark?

Inside were some yellow apples - they were so shiny, even in the dim light, that they almost looked gold. A simple note was attached - _Stay healthy._ Peter beamed, and devoured one apple happily. It tasted **so good**. He sighed happily, then closed the box and hid it under his bed. He wanted to save the rest for later.

At least he knew for sure that Mr. Stark was okay.


End file.
